Typical commercial transport aircraft include multiple, complex electrical systems and hundreds of circuit breakers to protect those systems. Existing aircraft typically include thermal circuit breakers which must be manually reset once they are tripped. Because this approach requires a substantial amount of aircraft wiring, and is heavy and not optimally efficient, some aircraft manufacturers have begun installing remotely located, solid state or electronic circuit breakers coupled to a data bus, in place of thermal circuit breakers. An electronic circuit breaker can provide electrical signals indicating the states of the circuit breakers (e.g., open, closed, or tripped) and can respond to electrical signals to change state. Accordingly, mechanics, pilots, or other users at an aircraft flight deck can determine the states of remotely located circuit breakers, and can change the states of such circuit breakers from the flight deck.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical existing control and display unit (CDU) 12 that can be used to monitor and control electronic aircraft circuit breakers. The CDU 12 can include a display screen 13 and a series of line select buttons 14. The display screen 13 can present multiple pages of circuit breaker status information when the user manipulates the line select button or other keys. The line select buttons 14 can be used to select one of the circuit breakers identified at the display screen 13, and the line select buttons 14 or other hardware buttons at the CDU 12 can be used to change the states of the circuit breakers.
One drawback associated with the foregoing system described above with reference to FIG. 1 is that it may be time-consuming for the mechanic or other aircraft operator or user to locate a desired circuit breaker and change its state. Accordingly, the user may not operate efficiently when monitoring and controlling aircraft circuit breakers, which can reduce the overall efficiency with which the user controls the aircraft.